Telescopic slides for file drawers and the like are often desirable for use in cabinets and other rack mounted applications. Such slides permit easy access to the interior of the drawer. The slides maintain the drawer in a horizontal position regardless of how far the drawer is withdrawn from the cabinet. A typical drawer slide has two or three slide members slidably connected by sets of ball bearings held by retainers riding in raceways formed on the slide members. Two element telescopic slides normally include an outer slide member and an inner slide member. For purposes of exposition, the outer slide member is connected to the cabinet or enclosure, although it is recognized that the inner slide member may instead be so connected. When the outer slide member is connected to the cabinet or enclosure, the slide member affixed to the drawer is the inner slide member. A three element telescopic slide will additionally normally include an intermediate slide member slidably connected to and between the outer and inner slide members.
A typical drawer will often have two slides securing the drawer to the cabinet or enclosure, with slides attached to each of the outside of the vertical side walls of the drawer. The slides may be attached to the cabinet or enclosure by a variety of methods. The outer slide member may have screw holes in its vertical web thereby allowing attachment of the outer slide member to the cabinet or enclosure through the use of a screw. A flange may also be integrally formed on the outer slide member, the flange having screw holes for a similar method of attachment. A mounting bracket may also be welded to the outer slide member.
The foregoing methods of mounting a outer slide member to a cabinet or enclosure are not free of problems. Requiring that a screw be placed through the vertical web may provide difficulties in accessing the screw hole when the slide is not extended. With the slide extended such difficulty may be alleviated, but the extended slide may be inadvertently damaged or possibly cause injury to persons due to its projecting nature. The screw protruding inward from the slide member may also interfere with the motion of other slide members. Forming an integral flange from the outer slide member also poses difficulties. Manufacturing costs may increase due to the requirement of additional operations being performed on the outer slide member, as well as due to extra material waste. Welding mounting brackets to the outer slide member also poses problems as the mounting brackets may not be required in all applications and the mounting brackets cannot be repositioned along the length of the outer slide member.
Thus, there is a need for a mounting apparatus for a drawer slide that does not require access through the web of the slide, does not require additional manufacturing operations to be performed on the outer slide member, and is positionable along the length of the outer slide member.